A Native Elder Told Me

A friend comes to me out of the world I have to do what I can to deserve that My brother-friend and I learned to fish together He could fix engines; I liked to wrestle with tackle We kept our fishing licenses all our lives Not like so many Indians that sold theirs off After every fishing season, we gave money to relatives We gave them land and cars; we gave away everything; When a season was good, I knew how many relatives I had We were too lucky, it wouldn't be right to keep so much. My wife and I bought a café, she kept it running for twenty years That was a place to have fun in our town, but I had to move on I was afraid it would make an alcoholic of me I belong to the end of an era, grew up on the native side of town My father washed up in Cordova He wasn't really related to the families around here But I got in with my brother-friend's family There were piles of money to be made through the Native Corporation But I wasn't interested in being any kind of executive And there was a lot of division in our community Some people drew a circle and thought they could keep us out We just drew a bigger circle and counted them in They didn't notice at first, but slowly they realized Hey, being in this big circle feels pretty good! Maybe they thought it was their idea, we didn't mind Some people were too clever, always looking out for themselves We pretended it was a clown game, to draw the circle bigger for us all It was just a joke among ourselves, we never laughed for spite Maybe there was a person who never got the idea, he went too far He always drew the circle way too small, kept tools for himself Burned wood from the shared clamming cabins, would never replace it He did bad things- -no need to talk about exactly what he did A few of us put on long stern faces, like Indian policemen We'd go and warn him: Hey, we know what you've been doing You already got two chances; if it happens a third time, There is no place for you here…And if we caught him at it again There's no need to talk about what happened But that person who did those things- -he is probably crying forever If there was any man who made a success of himself It was because he put a woman in the highest place in life Me and my brother-friend had tremendous luck fishing I used to take my boat to the Bering Sea for herring That was the backbone of our fishery Too bad the herring stocks have collapsed I bought a plane and paid a man just to spot fish for us I got all the new contraptions, learned to use sonar I used to wait for early fishing runs at the river mouths You'd be surprised how three hours of sleep is enough to go on I got that habit when I was a kid digging clams We would stay out early in the season, get small catches It was only a little money, but night after night mounted up When the big runs of fish came in, we were in shape to go We would be out months at a time. Out in the sun and water Hopping among the islands, Lord thank you for such a life! When I think of so many beautiful places I could smile forever It was our fun to visit small villages, they were hardly on the map They loved to have visitors; we rested up and learned the people's lives I had a box of treats under the table in my boat Village kids would come and sit around the table They had heard about the treats, but they wouldn't ask for them I would hold out a handful, each of them would only take one I would say, don't you have sisters at home? Don't you have mothers? Now the village people still call me on marine radio sometimes: Where was you, Captain Ron, we missed you? You used to come through here every year around this time